You have to know when to fold 'em - and know your fellow poker players

Wednesday

Jul 25, 2007 at 12:01 AMJul 25, 2007 at 9:25 AM

Connecticut official says poker games solicited through Web sites violate the "pre-existing social relationship" condition usually applied to home games.

By Erica Jacobson

Next time you sit down to a poker game around the kitchen table, take a good look at your opponents.

Forget about trying to ferret out a bluff and instead ask yourself how well you know your fellow players.

Last week, as the Division of Special Revenue reminded Connecticut residents where they can and cannot legally play poker, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said games solicited through Web sites violate the "pre-existing social relationship" condition usually applied to home games.

"It's the nature of the relationship between the players that really determines whether it is legal," Blumenthal said. "If they're coming together because they all answered an ad in the paper or on the Internet, there's no social relationship."

Paul Ulm, a Norwich poker player, disagreed with Blumenthal's logic.

"I feel that the solicitation of poker players is no different than a Bible study," he wrote in an e-mail Wednesday. "These people meet up through various media."

According to Blumenthal, if a group of nurses who work together at The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich gets together Sunday nights to play without the host profiting, there's no problem.

However, if a game is made up of strangers who found each other through a networking Web site such as Meetup.com or HomePokerGames.com, the games become illegal, Blumenthal said.

Ulm said he likes to play low-limit cash games or small buy-in tournaments and believes everyone should be able to play as long as they are old enough.

"Poker is just another game that people like to play in a social and competitive nature," he wrote. "If people choose to play poker and the house does not take a cut, it should not matter who plays."

Reach Erica Jacobson of the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin at ejacobs@norwichbulletin.com.